Testing for strings, and numbers

[Ray Parrish]

Hello,

I am writing a bash script and I would like to test $1 to see if it 
begins with the string "http://" but I am not coming up with a method of 
doing so.

Also I would like to know how to test $1 to see if it begins with a 
numeric digit.

All of my attempts so far have been stymied, and I can't seem to find 
the excellent bash reference I had been using before, and am trying to 
navigate a couple of less than excellent references that do not include 
sections on string handling.

Could someone help me with this please?

Thanks, Ray Parrish

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